The Website That Makes Dieting Easier

As we recently learned, the general public is still pretty darn clueless when it comes to calorie counting: A recent study presented at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association found that . Well, a new website called MenuStat just may change all that. The site, which was recently launched by the NYC Department of Health, lists the nutritional info of more than 35,000 items from 66 of the country’s largest fast-food restaurants. FYI, that’s a lot!

But here’s the best part: It has all these cool extra features. That means it doesn’t just tell you what the calorie counts are—it also helps you put them in context with other nutritional info so you know what the best choice is. We played around on the site for a bit (OK, probably for too long) and picked out our favorite features:

You Can Search the Site by Phrase
Say you have a massive craving for onion rings but want to know if there is a healthier way to satisfy your urge. Just type “onion” into the search box, and up pops the various calorie counts of all of your options: grilled onions at Denny’s (60 calories), Fronions at Friendly’s (130 calories), and more. Pretty cool, right?

You Can See How Different Items Compare—in Chart Form
Want a burger but don’t know where you want to go to get one? Just click on the graph option. You select the category of food you want (“burgers”), the restaurants you want to consider (basically all your favorite burger joints), and the nutrients you care about (calories, fat, fiber, etc.). Then, boom: It magically makes this chart for you with all of the info you requested. That way, you can easily see how your selected options compare without having to sort through a long list of numbers.

You Can Search by Menu CategoryChoose a category like “appetizer,” for example, and you can see the calorie counts of every starter from all of the restaurants included on the site. What’s more, you can automatically sort each item from most calories to fewest. For the record: Applebee’s takes the cake for highest-calorie appetizer on the site. That would be…wait for it…the Chili Cheese Nachos, at 1,600 calories a pop! Yikes.

Finally, it Has a HUGE Variety of Menu Items
Whoppers are so beginner. This site has info on way crazier, lesser-known items, like, oh you know, Zingin’ Buffalo Wings from Krystal. Who knew zingin’ was even a word, let alone an appetizer?! Oh, the things you’ll learn…

In sum: We highly suggest playing around on MenuStat, not to mention using it when you find yourself at a chain that doesn’t have a calorie count in sight.

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